Last week a Swedish court ordered Black Internet, the bandwidth supplier to The Pirate Bay, to disconnect the site from the Internet under threat of large fines. The site was quickly back up with a new ISP but now several Swedish political parties are being openly critical of the law used to take the site down.

Pending the outcome of a civil action taken by several entertainment companies including Disney, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Sony, NBC and Paramount, on 24th August Stockholm’s district court ordered aggressive action to remove The Pirate Bay from the Internet.

The court ordered the site’s bandwidth supplier, Black Internet, to disconnect the site from the Internet or face penalties of 500,000 kronor ($70,600). The ISP complied immediately – it had no choice if they were to comply with the law.

The Pirate Bay was quickly back up with a new bandwidth supplier but now several Swedish political parties are being openly critical of the law used to threaten Black Internet with fines as punishment for failing to stop the actions of others. The politicians are now calling for a change in the law.

Camilla Lindberg, who sits in parliament for the Liberal Party, told SR.se that she believes that in this case, threatening an ISP with damages is taking things too far.

“To silence an operator, I think this is outrageous. We need to review the law and we need a proper investigation,” she said.

The Green Party, Left Party and Center Party are also critical over the way the law was applied.

Johan Linander, spokesperson for the Center Party who also sits in the parliamentary Justice Committee noted that for other breaches of law, it is up to ISPs to decide whether to shut down its customers or not, “but in terms of copyright, there is a kind of censorship with the help of this penalty,” he said.

Other politicians, including Social Democrat Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom who sponsored the 2005 law, and the Conservatives, are refusing to comment since the criminal case of The Pirate Bay is still ongoing.

Christian Democrat Otto von Arnold told Sveriges Radio that he felt that the courts had done the right thing.

Whether or not the law is flawed or needs to be amended doesn’t change the fact that the court action has done little to change the reality on the ground. The Pirate Bay is online and although a little unstable initially, is now reporting tracking nearly 23,000,000 peers.